.co.uk / WHOIS

[Laundry]

I have a .co.uk domain name via a UK-based registrar for which I have the WHOIS privacy activated. Can you tell me, if I transfer the domain to Bluehost in order to use this domain name for WordPress hosting, will Bluehost also be able to offer the WHOIS privacy for this .co.uk domain?

Thanks in anticipation!

[Early Out]

You can't transfer a .co.uk domain to BH. BH can be the registrar only for U.S. domain names (like .com, .net, .org, etc.). All you can do is change the nameservers on your .co.uk domain to ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com. So, the pages would be hosted on BH, but the domain registrar would stay the same as it is now. The WHOIS privacy would, therefore, be unchanged as well.

[Laundry]

Thanks for your quick response!

So my understanding is that I now need to go through the transfer mode with BH who will then be my host? Pardon my ignorance, I'm new to this.

[Early Out]

No. You cannot transfer your domain registration to BH, because it's a .co.uk domain. The registration must stay right where it is now.

What I've described is what you must do to host your pages on BH, regardless of where the domain is registered. You need to use your existing domain registrar to change the nameservers for your domain to point to BH - this tells the rest of the world that your pages are hosted on BH, even though the domain is registered somewhere else.

Once you've got the domain pointing to ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com, you then go into the BH Control Panel, and make that domain an "addon domain" to your BH account.

[Laundry]

Can you tell I'm new to this? Can you, can you? Thank you muchly.

[Early Out]

It's confusing until you start getting a clear mental picture of what's happening. Domain registration and domain hosting are not directly related. Domain registration is like copyrighting a name, so that only you can use it. You can register a domain, but not host it anywhere - no web site at all, just a registered name.

The nameservers point from the registered domain to the place where the pages are actually hosted. The BH nameservers then intercept requests for access to your hosted pages, and say, "Someone wants to see laundry.co.uk's pages. Now where did I put those? Oh, yeah, they're on box123, under the 'laundry' account."

A domain registrar may not offer hosting at all, and a web host may not offer domain registration at all. BH can, for U.S. domains, perform both functions - registration and hosting - which makes life a lot simpler for those of us who are on this side of the Atlantic.

[felgall]

BH not only do US domains they also do international domains such as .com, .net, and .org that are used by people from all over the world for sites targetted at an international audience.

[Laundry]

Belated thanks people, much appreciated.